A Bathing Incident
by Ayrith
Summary: Hinata is having a bad day. Throw in some recklessness, stripped clothes, an empty bathing house, and her clueless cousin, and its a recipe for the worst rematch of her life.


**AN:** This was for an anonymous meme with the prompt, 'Scream' awhile back. I just wanted to write something hilarious (to me) with absolute maximum embarrassment factor. For those of you who are wondering, this is not a pairing fic, but come on. Attractive Neiji is canon.

* * *

Hinata was having one of _those_ days.

It had started when her auntie on her father's side had accosted her in the training grounds at four in the morning and caught her perfecting a tricky chameleon genjutsu. It was one that Kurenai had taught her, and it was far more satisfying to disappear into morning twilight than try and fail at performing the necessary steps for her Twin Lion Fists. Hinata had been so completely focused on checking the visibility of her chakra that she didn't even notice her auntie tapping her foot with irritation in the dirt until it was far too late to disappear.

Despite being neither a ninja nor a practitioner of the Hyuga's sacred fighting style, her auntie firmly believed the Gentle Fist was the only form of ninjutsu that should ever be practiced, and to do otherwise was to shame Hinata's father in name and household. Especially if her antics were to be observed by any of the branch family, who were privileged enough as it was without witnessing the failings of the Hyuga Main Branch offspring. And if Hinata was ever going to redeem herself and catch up with her branch cousin someday, she was going to have to take her real training more seriously.

Hinata didn't even bother trying to tell her auntie she would never be like Neji, nor that she wanted to be. That would have caused more trouble than was worth it. As it was, she was taken soundly by the ear and marched into the house, victim to an unending and deafening tirade that lasted long past the rooster's morning crow. When she was finally set free, tired and more than a little frustrated at being caught unawares when she hadn't been so ignorant of her surroundings in at least 3 years, she trudged into her room to wash, dress, and prepare for the day.

Hanabi, sweet girl, slipped into the wash room just as Hinata was making her way towards it, and with a wicked smirk slammed the door in her face. Hinata had the dreadful feeling it was a sign for how the rest of her day was going to go.

It was.

Breakfast was particularly brutal. Her father, who was reading the paper when she walked into the living room, gave her a cool look over the edge of the page, making Hinata cringe. Obviously, her auntie had tattled on her. It wouldn't have mattered quite so much except for the fact that her father had specifically shown her the form of the Twin Lion Fist not two days before, and had chastised her about taking shortcuts in her katas.

Hanabi chose that moment to bustle through the door, dressed in a training robe and fish nets. She didn't seem to notice the intense stare down going on between her family.

"Going to train me today, right Dad?" Hanabi said as she plopped down at the table and began to quickly fill her plate.

Her father kept Hinata's gaze for a few more seconds, before his eyes drifted back to his paper. "Of course, Hanabi."

Needless to say, breakfast tasted like saw dust. She was still feeling the nausea when she arrived at Training Ground 4 at seven o'clock.

Kiba took one look at her and took two non-discrete steps behind Shino, who was staring intensely at something in a tree. Which was just as well because when Kurenai appeared, looking like she had been throwing up all morning and was out to take her revenge on anything that moved , Hinata felt her own even-keeled temper begin to spike.

Worse, when she was unable to land a single hit on Kiba for the next two hours of the training from hell, she realized her father was right: her form _was_ getting sloppy. A chameleon jutsu was all well and good but it was rather useless on Kiba who was more inclined to use his nose anyway.

When she lost her temper and was half way through signing the Bear Claw, hands suddenly grabbed her wrists and she was thrown over a slim shoulder and sent flying into the lake.

When she broke surface, spluttering for air, it was to a furious Kurenai with her hands on her hips.

If it wasn't awful enough being yelled at by the only person in the world Hinata could not stand disappointing, the worried look Kiba was giving her over Akamaru's back made Hinata feel like the worst kind of scum imaginable. It certainly wasn't his fault he was faster, stronger and five times more compassionate.

As punishment for attempting dangerous jutsu on a fellow teammate Hinata was to run four hundred laps around the training ground.

Hinata blanched. Kiba flinched. Even Shino, a regular practitioner of unmovable stoicism, pulled down his glasses to peer at her in sympathy. Kurenai stared her down until Hinata sighed and turned away. When Kiba stood up as she passed, protests forming on his mouth, Hinata merely touched his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Kiba," she said quietly and tried to smile. From the conflicted look that shifted on Kiba's face, it was probably not a successful one.

By the time Hinata was starting her 198th lap, the sun was waving its last goodbyes. Kiba and Shino had already gone home and Kurenai was propped comfortably against a tree trunk, having found the time between Hinata's laps to purchase a box of dango. The smell drifting into the clearing made Hinata's stomach whimper in need. Breakfast hadn't exactly been one of the most filling meals she'd ever had.

She was halfway across the field when she noticed Kurenai waving at her to approach. Wiping the sweat off her brow, gasping heavily, Hinata slowly dragged her feet over to her prostrate teacher.

Kurenai's earlier mood may have dispelled with the arrival of her latest craving (Hinata never wanted to be pregnant if this was what it was going to be like) but the tight press of the older woman's lips as Hinata approached told her she was still very much in trouble.

"Do you know what you did wrong?" Kurenai asked, setting down her treats and favoring Hinata with a serious expression.

"Yes."

"Good," Kurenai said evenly," because I never want to see you behave like that again."

Immediately, without Hinata's permission, her eyes clouded over with tears. Mortified, Hinata tried to look away, but by then Kurenai was on her feet and had grasped Hinata's chin to turn her back. She stared firmly into Hinata's eyes, neither harshly or compassionately, until the tears dried and Hinata could breathe evenly again.

"You know better than this, Hinata," Kurenai said with a hint of sympathy. "Everybody has a bad day, but ninja cannot afford to lose focus. Nor can they lose sight of the overall picture. A conflicted ninja is not only a danger to herself, but a danger to her teammates as well."

This coming from the woman who had just trained her students to within inches of their lives due to her own bad mood. But then again, Kurenai hadn't tried to blast one of her closest friends into the next life, either.

"I'm sorry," Hinata whispered.

"Good." Kurenai returned to her relaxing position against the tree trunk, replacing the dango box in her lap. "Then I think you've learned your lesson. You may go."

Hinata hardly daring to believe her luck, turned quickly to leave. But she had retreated only two steps when Kurenai, examining her sticky fingers, added, "But you're going to finish the rest of those four hundred laps tomorrow. If you can't even keep up with Kiba anymore, I've been letting you get away with laziness."

Apparently, everyone was finding fault with her form today.

Hinata hardly remembered the trip home. By the time she was trudging through one of the side gates to the Hyuga Compound, every muscle fiber in her body was screaming in protest. She wanted to drop into her bedroll and sleep the rest of the year away, just to put some distance between her and this horrible day. But she was filthy and sticky and at her limit. Nobody, especially not Hanabi, was going to get between her and the bath tub tonight.

It was at this point that Hinata finally noticed she wasn't quite as near to the main building as she had originally thought. Without her knowing, her tired body had entered into one of the back side gates that lead directly to the Hyuga training ground. She had been here this very morning when her auntie had found her, leaning against one of the old practice dummies and trying to blend into its dirty cotton fabric. Over the last couple hours, the training ground had changed. The dummy she had set up had disappeared, no doubt folded up in the back of the storage shed, and the center space of the grounds had been cleared. Curious despite her fatigue, Hinata made her way over an examined the patterns made on the ground. A duel had obviously taken place here, as she recognized the tell tale swirls and familiar stances in the dirt as users of the Gentle Fist.

Suddenly, Hinata remembered with sharp clarity the exchange between her father and sister that morning. An image of Hanabi as she had been suddenly appeared before Hinata, the younger girl's stance open and fluid, her smile cock sure. Hinata's eyes flicked to the left and there was her father, unsmiling, his palms up in open challenge.

That part was pure speculation, of course. Hinata had never dueled her father. In fact, Hinata wasn't sure if she had ever seen him fight.

In an instant, her idle curiosity vanished. Here was Hinata, standing in the middle of a training field, as alone as she always found herself, feeling more like a filthy rag than an heiress of the noble Hyuga clan. Main, branch, none of that mattered if the father she admired and feared was more concerned with the contents of his newspaper than the emotional needs of his daughter.

There was a bathing house on the periphery of the training grounds, weather worn and bleached by the sun. Though only used when members of the main branch gathered for inter-family tournaments or when the odd Hyuga, like herself, decided to practice here rather than on the more ample Konoha grounds, her father had ordered the bathhouse to always be stocked and cleaned. Even if it was little more than an empty iron tub and water pipes that were always too cold or too hot, certainly a far cry from the rather luxurious wash room near her bedroom, it was better than the alternative. The thought of passing the living room where her father was probably occupied with paper work made her skin physically crawl.

The entrance door squeaked in protest as Hinata pried it open to reveal a near pitch black room. Padding into the room (the tile floor was slightly moist, she noted) she headed toward the center where she knew the old swinging light bulb normally hung. Groping in the dark, she found the little chain and gave it a timid tug.

Nothing happened.

Hinata blinked, giving it a stronger tug. Frustration got the better of her again: the next pull was so hard that she heard the ceiling crack and give away a little. She flinched when with a loud snap the chain, along with what felt like the entire light bulb, came away in her hands.

Lifting it up so the meager light peaking through the slit door illuminated the clearly broken light fixture, Hinata stared at it for several seconds before releasing a small groan.

This day just kept getting worse and worse. Was it too much to hope for a brief respite from her horrendous luck?

Well, there was no way she could take a shower, much less a bath, in pitch black darkness. She briefly contemplated casting a fire jutsu, but to her knowledge there were no candles in here and she might just as easily catch fire to the entire building with all the wood sitting around. Half-heartedly she activated Byakugan, hoping that perhaps it might lend her a little clarity of sight. Instead all she got was a 360° view of…darkness.

It would have been easy enough to just give up on the endeavor and trudge back to the house for a shower and bath more promising than this one could ever provide. But that small stubborn side of her, the side that had seen her through her terrible battle with Neji as a genin to its inevitable conclusion, was rooting itself down and making camp. Anything—even an old, disused and broken down water house was better than being within ten feet of any sneering…condescending…uppity person with noble Hyuga blood running through their veins.

Feeling a little wild, Hinata stormed over to the bath house door and with a sharp wrench, sent it shrieking open. Moonlight, thick and bright, illuminated the interior of the bleak room in a way that left it transformed.

Hinata stared at the moon for a long moment, comforted somewhat by its pulsing radiance. There was no critique in its gaze, no vengeful smile on its lips, no indifferent stare. It reminded her a bit of her mother, actually, who had died when she was six. Not that she remembered much; 9 years and the memories had begun to fade into choice words and a soft voice and a gentle steady warmth that always filled her chest. After her mother's death, Kurenai had largely come to fill the gap her mother had left behind, but Kurenai had never been gentle with kids. You were sooner to get a rap to the head than an warm hug, and her favorite form of affection was frequent and merciless hair tousling. Perhaps when Kurenai gave birth to her own child she might soften, but no—Hinata was no longer a child herself. She did not need that kind of compassion anymore.

Even if there were some days when she still really wanted it.

Shaking herself from her daze, Hinata turned and surveyed her handiwork. Then, as it suddenly dawned on her what she was doing, Hinata blushed straight from the roots of her hair down past the collar of her work out clothes.

The idea of bathing with the door open was so… so wrong and sinful that she could barely comprehend why she had thought it better than taking a shower in the dark. Anyone who happened to be walking by might see her naked! Though…this area of the compound wasn't frequently visited during most hours and was almost always deserted during the night. Hinata bit her lip and looked outside into the night. Perhaps…perhaps if she was quick…Certainly it was better than returning to the house…

Clenching her eyes shut and taking a deep breath, Hinata decided that for once in her life she was going to have the courage to do something reckless.

But perhaps the door could be a _little_ more closed than that.

And with that thought, she reached out and moved it three-quarters of the way closed.

The room was dark again, though now with a little more light, Hinata was beginning to make out the shapes in the room. There were the two water pumps with the rubber hose and spray nozzle used for washing. There was the iron tub, empty and faintly gleaming. There was the cabinet with the washing supplies and the bucket and the—dressing stand—with the towels…

Hinata straightened up abruptly and gave her cheeks a light slap. She could do this. It wasn't like out of all the many countless nights the training grounds were empty, she would pick the one day where someone would happen to walk by.

Gulping slightly, Hinata hurried over to the dressing stand. Her pants were off within seconds, though she struggled a bit with getting her tight shirt over her…err, shoulders and head. Certainly when she was nine years old, trying to get her clothes off hadn't been this difficult. When she was finally able to wrench free of the constricting material, she was left in her underwear and her chest wrap. The blush that worked its way down her neck was unstoppable as she almost shyly folded her undergarments and stashed them in a pocket of her pants. She was about to fold her clothes neatly on the dressing stand when, with a nervous glance at the door, she threw them hurriedly underneath. Better to be safe than sorry.

Except, of course, she was now completely naked and nowhere near feeling safe.

A light breeze made its way through the door, sending chills down Hinata's skin. Shuddering, she quickly reached into the dressing cabinet, pulled one of the two towels folded there, and draped it around her body. Perhaps the door was still a little _too_ open. Perhaps she should—

Her heart froze and dropped like a rock into the pit of her stomach when quite suddenly she heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

The gentle sound of the footfalls rang out in the quiet night and, as far as Hinata was concerned, sang out her impending doom. They were approaching from the main house and slowly but steadily drawing closer to the bathhouse. Clutching her mouth to hold in the sound of her suddenly short breath, Hinata slowly backed away from the bath house door entrance. Desperate, she listened to the sound of the footfalls, waiting for the moment they would turn in a new direction and be on their way.

Except there was something odd about the sound. In fact, it sounded as if—

"…it is this way, young master…" a voice said from outside, just as a shadow began to form along the entryway.

For a brief, horrifying moment Hinata's mind completely blanked. And then, with a speed that she would have been shocked to see if she wasn't so terrified out of her mind, Hinata ran to the far end of the room and shrunk against the back wall.

No sooner did she feel the slight ripple of her chameleon jutsu sweep over her skin, did the shadows of two figures materialize from the night and stop right outside the door.

"Here is the bathing house, young master."

Despite the overwhelming feelings of horror and embarrassment attempting to choke her alive, Hinata recognized that voice in an instant.

It was her auntie.

There was a pause, and the taller shadow seemed to shift towards the entrance, examining it slowly. Long tendrils of hair shifted slightly down the length of a broad back, glistening like hollow shafts of light. For a second, she thought it was her father. Except her father was taller than that, so who could it—

The shadow shifted again. "I see." The voice was smooth and slow with just a touch of coolness. It sounded slightly familiar…

"I suppose all your guests are treated to such accommodations?"

All the blood drained from Hinata's face. If the voice was different, that haughty tone was utterly unmistakable.

It was Neji.

What the hell he was doing in the Hyuga Main branch compound at night didn't even matter, because at that moment, some small part of Hinata died inside. Here she was, crouched naked in an old building with nothing but a towel while standing outside in complete unawareness was her rotten auntie and the cousin who hated her. And apparently, they were politely arguing about whether or not he should go in.

This wasn't just a bad day; this was the absolute worst nightmare Hinata could never have imagined.

"—we do have another bathing room on the premises," her auntie was saying, "but right now it is occupied. Rather than complain about lack of accommodations, perhaps you should consider the kindness your uncle has already given by allowing you use of the Main Branch facilities. Now if you will excuse me, I have other duties to attend to."

With an irritated huff, her auntie bustled away into the night, leaving Neji to contemplate the cold open bath house. The uninviting bath house. The totally and completely undeserving bath house that no one should ever consider bathing in. Certainly, there had to be a more accommodating place to shower in his home. Certainly it was better to return home than to give Hinata's insufferable auntie the satisfaction of putting a branch member in his place.

Hinata was ready to mentally channel many more logical sounding arguments in his shadow's direction. As long as he didn't enter. As long as—

The door opened slowly with an ominous whine. Pressing her hand to her face till she could feel the bite of her finger nails in her cheek, Hinata stared wide eyed as her cousin stepped through the door and finally came into the light.

He looked different from the last time she had seen him. Perhaps because the last time she had seen him was a year ago when he had been promoted to Jounin and her father had made a point to attend. Hanabi, jealous that Neji was getting their father's attention, had thrown a tantrum and refused to go, so Hinata had dressed in her finest robes and waited at the entrance while her father was dressing. The look on his face as he stepped in the hall to see her there had been one of slight surprise. Though he didn't say a single thing, the fact that he opened the door for her with a slight nod of his head made her feel like the snide looks and remarks she had received from the rest of the house were all worth it. She had gone to Neji's graduation full of light and had been sincere in her congratulations and well wishes. Only a half a head taller than her at the time, Neji had still managed to look down at her while at the same time bow to his uncle and cousin. However not even the frost of his eyes had been able to melt her high spirits that night.

Looking at him now in the moonlight, Hinata was struck by the fact that the cousin she had adored as a child was a complete stranger. There was a thickness to his shoulders and chest that had never been there before, a strength and sharpness to his jaw. From this angle alone Hinata could see he was now at least a head taller than her, and he had also grown into that long straight nose and firm mouth. His eyes, as beautiful and sharp as ice, made Hinata feel like her own were cheap replicas.

Her cousin had turned into a very pretty man. And, judging by the slow and efficient way those frosting eyes seemed to scan his surroundings, a very dangerous one.

Hinata bit the palm of her hand hard. Her genjutsu was supposed to, theoretically, hide both herself and her chakra flow from the Byakugan. It was why she had been practicing at 4 am this morning and why she had spent the majority of this last month developing a simple jutsu Kurenai had tried using as a prank once when they were kids. It had never worked on Hinata, but over the years she had wondered if such a genjutsu were possible to craft. A genjutsu to pull the wool over the All Seeing Eye.

Of course, crash testing her jutsu on her notoriously merciless cousin while she crouched naked on the floor wasn't exactly the situation she had had in mind for testing its success.

When Neji continued to stare around him, his eyes passing over her again and again, Hinata begin to feel the stirrings of hope in her chest. So he had not noticed her yet. This was a good sign. Now if she could just sneak by—

And just like that, Hinata's hope drowned in the complete certainty that there was _no possible way._ Hinata had built the genjutsu (stupidly!) in a way that completely camouflaged her on the contingent that she was _stationary_. Granted, she hadn't known she was going to be in this kind of situation when making the genjutsu, but that hardly mattered now. If she so much as breathed a little too hard, Neji was going to see a disturbance in the air like a ripple of water on a pond. Considering he was a Jounin, Hinata had little hope he wouldn't notice _that._

Which meant only one thing. She was going to have to out wait him.

Apparently satisfied that no one was around, Neji's shoulders seemed to relax. She hadn't realized he was tense until his shoulders dropped and he took a deep breath. As fluid as a cat, he took another step in the bath house and reached with a large hand to clutch the edge of the door. His wrist made a flicking motion, and with a rather startling screech, the door slammed shut and cut off all light from the outside.

Hinata bit her hand so hard she felt the skin give, but amazingly her body had kept perfectly still. She was probably going into shock, with how traumatizing this whole experience was. Once she got out of here, she was never going to set foot in this bath house again, she was never going to look Neji in the eye again, she was never going to be so reckless ever. Again.

So busy was Hinata trying to fight the rising panic attack, or at the very least prevent herself from fainting dead away, that for a moment the sounds coming from the other side of the room where intelligible to her. It was only when she heard the very distinct sound of a zipper drawing down that Hinata snapped her eyes blindly to the corner her cousin occupied, then just as quickly looked as far away in the opposite direction as she dared.

Her cousin was undressing.

 _Neji was undressing_.

This shouldn't have been that much of a surprise to Hinata. Considering they were in a bath house and she herself was completely striped down to her skivvies, she should have known this was the general direction things were heading. And she had. Theoretically. But the plain and simple truth was that Hinata had never seen her own _father_ anything less than fully dressed, much less her _cousin_ or a boy her own age or even someone _not_ her own age. Sure, there had been that one time Kiba had decided to go skinny dipping in the river on one of their C-ranked missions to some tropical jungle, but when she had slapped her hands over her eyes and said she wasn't peaking, _she had meant it._

Thankfully, the darkness was still too thick for her to accidentally see anything she didn't want to, but that still didn't change the fact that there was a very pretty young man less than 10 feet away from her without a stitch of clothes on.

If Neji didn't kill her, Hinata was going to keel over out of shock and never wake up.

Shallow breaths, Hinata told herself. Shallow, slow breaths. She could do this. She could escape with her life intact and only a small amount of psychological damage if she just stayed calm.

The sound of rustling clothes finally stopped. After a tense moment of silence, she heard the pad of feet slowly make their way to the first of the water pipes. There was a squeak of the first rusty pipe, followed by the hiss of a water jet stream. At the sound, Hinata nearly wept from relief.

Okay, so he was taking a shower. She was almost half way there. Soon—

A second squeak had her eyes jumping up in surprise, and after a gurgling sputter, the second shower head turned on as well. The fine hairs on Hinata's neck prickled up in warning, but she tried to shake it off.

So her cousin liked lots of water when taking a shower. Sure that was a little weird, but then apparently he liked to also take his showers in pitch black darkness, so it wasn't like it was _too_ weird—

"I know you're here."

Neji's words, soft and calculating, sang true as they ricocheted through the room and pierced straight through Hinata's chest.

And just like that, Hinata's nightmare went past the point of no return and turned straight into a living Hell. Gaping and utterly shell-shocked, she could only stare helplessly into the darkness as Neji slithered quietly beneath the sound of water spray.

"I don't know who you are," he was saying calmly, his voicing echoing slightly enough so that she couldn't pinpoint where he was, "and I commend you on whatever it is you are doing. That's a neat trick, being able to shield yourself from the All Seeing Eye. But if you think I was stupid enough not to notice your pile of clothes—" _Her clothes_! "—hidden in the corner, then you have severely underestimated me." He paused, as if to impress upon his would-be attacker the grave error he made, before adding simply, "It will cost you."

This was not happening. This was _not happening._ Sure she had often dreamed of having a rematch with her cousin, but not when they were in a bathroom and not when _they were naked._

"If you come out now and give yourself up, I will let you go free. I will not report your suspicious behavior to the Head of the Hyuga family. Merely give me your name and your reason for being here, and you can walk out that door and never see me again."

Who did he think he was kidding? Even Hinata, as naïve as she was, didn't think for a moment Neji was going to let her go. Especially if he thought she was some intruder on the Hyuga property. Perhaps it would be different if he knew she was a clan member, or perhaps if he knew it was Hinata herself. If that were the case, she wouldn't be standing where she was now, at the most dangerous place she had ever been in her life, with the Shinigami of Death himself stalking her through the darkness of her very own bathroom.

But there was _no way in hell_ Hinata was _ever_ going to admit that the assassin he thought was sneaking through the dark, was in fact his much hated, very naked cousin. _Forget it._ And since she wasn't about to die at the hands of her own blood and disgrace her father's name for all eternity that just meant one thing.

Hinata was going to have to fight Neji and _win._

Needless to say, she felt like throwing up all over the floor.

Hinata's eyes darted around the darkness. She had less than five seconds to plan a course of action before Neji pinpointed her location. She was no match for Neji in terms of the Gentle Fist, but with her genjutsu active, she could at the very least hide the 64 chakra pathways in her own body (theoretically!), even if she couldn't shield herself from his sight. He would have no such luck, and if she could at least render one of his arms immobile, perhaps she could—

The gentle hiss of metal sliding through vapor was her only warning that she had miscalculated her remaining time—but by then it was too late. The kunai flew through the air and splintered its target on contact: the wood mere centimeters above her head.

He had missed! Except, she realized with sudden clarity, he actually hadn't. He had hit his intended target with perfect accuracy: the exact place her throat would have been, if she were a man of Neji's height. And now he had a better idea of where his attacker was, because in the moment she heard the kunai whistle by her ear, she had shifted into a defensive crouch, her towel dropping to her feet. She had felt the genjutsu ripple in violent response.

And just like that, her cover was blown.

He came out of the darkness like a viper, but this time she was ready. Dropping all pretense of her genjutsu, she concentrated on suppressing her chakra, even as she dodged a low sweep of his hand. Byakugan flared bright in her head and this time, instead of the darkness, she saw small pin points of light dancing and flashing in the shadows. They were dim and hazy—but they were there.

Neji struck out again, his fists aiming for points he couldn't see, and again Hinata dodged and slipped out to the side. Without a single moment's hesitation, she struck out triumphantly with two fingers—and completely sealed the chakra use of his right arm.

Neji gave a small grunt of surprise when she landed her mark. Perhaps, for the briefest of nanoseconds, Hinata started to believe that she could possibly win this. But then quite suddenly, his leg snapped out and hooked around her left ankle, sending her stumbling. She had nearly righted herself when her foot caught on the edge of something hard and plastic. She had only a moment to register that it was a bucket— _there was a bucket in the middle of the floor_ —when Neji lunged forward, seized one of her wrists and used all his weight to bear down on top of her—and they were falling.

Her mouth opened up and she would have screamed bloody murder except Neji's supposedly useless right hand snapped up and planted two thick fingers into the back of her gums. They hit the wooden tile with an agonizing thump and slid right under one of the shower head sprays.

And just like that, Hinata was caught, quartered, and if the spray of the water and the fingers in her mouth were any indication, beginning to drown.

It only took a moment for Neji to come to his senses but Hinata, who had taken the brunt force of the fall, went as limp as a wet noodle. When the dizziness in her eyes finally began to dissipate, Neji had shifted them away from under the shower spray, pinned her body and legs with his, and had secured both her wrists in his left hand. His right hand was still partially lodged down her throat.

The only way things could have gotten worse was if her father suddenly decided to make an impromptu visit to the training grounds and walked straight in on his nephew and daughter wrestling in the nude on the bathroom floor. And worse, his daughter _losing._

Above her, Neji was trying to catch his breath. It ghosted along her damp skin, sending a flock of goosebumps down her neck and making her shudder. Long tendrils of his hair, wet from the shower, clung to the sides of her face in gentle contrast to the tight grip he had on her wrists.

And then began the most bizarre interrogation of her life.

"Now that I have you secured—" Neji began, winning the award for best understatement of the year, "I want to know." His grip tightened. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Hinata glared balefully up at the twin pin pricks of eyes she could see winking in the darkness, which was about the extent of her vision in the pitch black. The fact that she couldn't see his face, even when she knew it was him, was scaring her into a hysteric sort of recklessness. Since reality had decided to jump ship and take everything sane and right in the world with it, Hinata didn't think there was anything left to do to make this situation better. Therefore, the only thing to look forward to was to watch it go even further downhill.

He was waiting for her response, conveniently forgetting that he _still_ had control of her vocal chords. When he didn't seem inclined to move them, she bit down on his fingers as hard as she could—only to flinch as he dug his fingers sharply into the back of her gums.

"Okay, I get it," he said. "I'll let you speak. But if you scream or try anything funny, you'll find my hand returning to where it was. Got it?"

Hesitating only a second, she nodded.

"Good," he said, and the moment his hand retreated her jaw sang in relief. She would have rubbed it if Neji still hadn't been holding her wrists.

"Better?" His voice didn't do sarcasm at _all_. It came out all gravelly and rough and uncomfortable. She was almost thankful when he continued without preamble, "Now answer my questions. Who are you?"

Hinata remained silent. How did one go about saying it? _Hey Neji, its Hinata. Could you, you know, get off me and let me go to bed?_

While she was still thinking of a suitable response to his question, Neji gave a small sigh. "You're obviously a Hyuga. That much is clear. There should be no reason you have to not answer my questions. Unless…" he paused. "…you're here to kill me."

And then quite suddenly, Hinata was tired of it all. Tired of fighting the inevitable, tired of lying on the ground with a throbbing head and throbbing back, tired of pretending it wasn't doing havoc to her mind to have her kind of attractive cousin pinning her to the ground.

She sighed. "Of course not, Neji."

Her response, interestingly enough, seemed to shock him into silence. As he was thinking, Hinata began to realize he wasn't as naked as she had first assumed. He had stripped his traditional training robes, likely due to the disadvantage of voluminous robes in a close quarter fight, but he still had a fish net shirt and—his underwear?

A short pause, then, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

And she stared at him. And stared at him some more. Her fingers flexed in surprise and by accident touched something cool and slim and metal. Her brow furrowed, wondering what it was, until an idea began to slowly form in her mind. A radical idea to be sure, but—

"Of course, Neji. I think of all the people here, you would know me the best." Which was likely true, considering she had been the bane of his existence for nearly all of his life.

"Uhh." Clearly Neji had no idea what she was talking about. In his confusion, she began to feel the grip on her wrists slacken.

"So what are you doing here anyway?" Hinata continued. "I didn't think you were allowed to use the training grounds here."

She felt him draw back sharply. With a note of suspicion in his tone, he answered, "My uncle was training me today—"

Ah. So perhaps it hadn't been Hanabi who had fought her father after all…

"—but that is irrelevant. You still haven't answered my question…"

"But you know who I am."

"Then tell me who you are!" In his sudden frustration, he let go of her wrist to grip the back of her head. "How do I—"

But he never got to finish his sentence because at the moment Hinata grabbed the bucket sitting on its side near her hand and swung it with all her strength into the side of Neji's head.

The bucket shattered on impact and with a yelp of pain, Neji fell off of her. Within a flash, she had launched to her feet and rocketed to the door. In her haste to open it, she pulled it right off its rickety hinges and sent it flying behind her. Neji, who had recovered quickly and was reaching out to grab her by the hair, slammed right into the edge of it and skidded back into the room, landing with a painful thump against the shower wall.

It was over. Hinata gasping for breath, nearly fell to her knees with relief. There was the open door and freedom. All she had to do was run out the door, and this horrible, bizarre, hellish nightmare would end. She stumbled forward, nearly pitching over in sudden exhaustion, and was a second away from fading into the darkness when a low groan from behind made her hesitate.

A groan of pain.

Something similar to fear began to churn in her belly as Neji made that sound again and the door made a thump on the ground. Slowly, pressing trembling fingers to her mouth, Hinata gathered her courage and cast a glance over her shoulder.

What she saw made her heat skip a beat. It almost didn't matter that he had been the one to first attack her. Or that he had pinned her to the ground only moments before. All she could see was the wet dark spot beginning to drip down the side of his face, and suddenly Hinata didn't know what she should do. She took a step toward the doorway, faltered, then glanced again over her shoulder.

He was coming to. If she didn't leave soon…

A chill breeze blew suddenly into the room, making Hinata shiver. Glancing at her feet, she spotted Neji's robes that he had discarded earlier. Bending swiftly, she picked them up and slid them over her shoulders, pulling her hair out from under the fabric. When she had finished dressing, she cast another glance over her shoulder.

Neji had not moved from his spot. He merely sat there, watching her, his eyes glowing as bright as the moon outside.

Quickly she turned away, suddenly afraid of what she would see in his gaze, and limped softly to the doorway. She laid her hand on the wood and paused. Her fingers clenched.

"Don't follow me, Neji," she pleaded quietly.

And then, she was gone in a shift of wind, chased by the word that breathed from his lips as he watched her go.

"…Hinata?"


End file.
